Top-down contextual knowledge guides visual attention in infancy

Abstract

The visual context in which an object or face resides can provide useful top-down information for guiding attention orienting, object recognition, and visual search. Although infants have demonstrated sensitivity to covariation in spatial arrays, it is presently unclear whether they can use rapidly acquired contextual knowledge to guide attention during visual search. In this eye-tracking experiment, 6- and 10-month-old infants searched for a target face hidden among colorful distracter shapes. Targets appeared in Old or New visual contexts, depending on whether the visual search arrays (defined by the spatial configuration, shape and color of component items in the search display) were repeated or newly generated throughout the experiment. Targets in Old contexts appeared in the same location within the same configuration, such that context covaried with target location. Both 6- and 10-month-olds successfully distinguished between Old and New contexts, exhibiting faster search times, fewer looks at distracters, and more anticipation of targets when contexts repeated. This initial demonstration of contextual cueing effects in infants indicates that they can use top-down information to facilitate orienting during memory-guided visual search.

Figure 1

Four sample displays of colored shapes, which appeared to flip over and reveal search arrays of a target face and three distracters.

Figure 2

Mean RT saccadic latency to targets in Old and New contexts across trials (left), as well as mean change in RT latency (i.e., slope of latency functions) (right).

Figure 3

Mean number of visits to distracters prior to visiting the target in Old and New contexts across trials (left), as well as mean change in number of visits (i.e., slope of visit functions) (right).

Figure 4

Mean proportion of trials in which infants anticipated the target (i.e., had a negative latency).

Figure 5

Mean anticipatory looking time to the upcoming target location as a proportion of total looking time during the first 2 seconds of the trial (i.e., prior to target onset).